A vacation marked by the climate crisis: “I don’t want to imagine what can happen in a decade”

Mercedes Rodríguez (35 years old), a Sevillian resident in Madrid, has been with her partner in Crete this summer from August 4 to 15. “God, how sunny”, she comments, remembering her arrival at the Heraklion airport, the capital of the island. And that she did not land at noon, she did it herself at dawn. “We had been wearing glasses and a hat since eight in the morning, it was shocking to see that sun so early.” The temperatures were not torture for Mercedes. “Maybe, because I am from Seville.” Even so, time frustrated some of her plans. She and her partner were left without walking through the Samaria Gorge, in the White Mountains of Crete. At kilometer zero of the route, already with the appropriate footwear on their feet, they ruled out the adventure. “We knew we weren’t going to have a good time” because of the heat. The couple was very worried that the island would be crowded, but they were in for a surprise. They always found a place on the beach, even though they had heard it was difficult. Perhaps those extreme temperatures have been a deterrent for some. “Although it was August, there weren’t as many tourists as she thought,” Mercedes concludes.

The data. The extreme heat that has been experienced again this summer in southern Europe has caused many eyes to be directed towards the impact it can have on tourism. “Heat waves may reduce the attractiveness of southern Europe as a tourist destination in the long term, or at least reduce demand in summer,” warned a late July Moody’s report. Another study, prepared by the Joint Research Center of the European Commission, warned of the transfer of tourists that will take place from the southernmost regions of the EU to the northern ones. In a scenario of global warming of 4 degrees (we are now at 1.2 compared to pre-industrial levels) the Greek region of the Ionian Islands would be the most affected by the reduction in overnight stays. It would be followed by the Greek islands in the northern Aegean Sea, those in the southern Aegean, Cyprus and the Balearic Islands.

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